The Rose and Dragon: Montreal 24-30/9/12

Another short train trip up to Montreal where sadly I did need to do three days of work. Have to confess that Montreal didn't win us over completely - there's lots of smoking on the street and it was much less comfortable to walk around than Toronto or Ottawa, especially at night. We struggled initially with the French however felt reasonably comfortable by the time we left. Quite cool to hear the extreme bilingualism - one sentence in English, the next in French. Poked around a bit as you'd expect!

Firstly was Vieux Montreal including Vieux Port that dates back to the 1650's:

Montreal City Hall

Notre Dame Basilica

Promenade du Vieux Port

Bonsecours Market

Around the city...

Gare Windsor - yes, its a train station

And this is someone's house...

The squirrels in North America are awesome :)

Also went out to Ile Sainte Helene/Parc Jean-Drapeau which was built when the subway was put in. The islands connect via bridges and the Montreal F1 race track is there. You can walk, cycle or drive on the actual track :)

Giles Villeneuve Circuit

Biosphere

Ile Sainte Helene

Ile Notre Dame

McGill University Hospital

Popped out to the Olympic Village that was built for the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Sadly it was a monument to 70's concrete architecture...and the fact that it is hard to modernise or beautify bad concrete. Still, we went up the Montreal Tower which is the tallest inclined structure in the world - 165m tall on a 45 degree angle. It was built as part of the "retractable roof" system for the stadium - which worked once and has never worked again. Apparently it leaked too. Good city views though!